******
- Verified Buyer
Recognized now as one of the great composers, it took Anton Bruckner a very long time to get to that level of recognition, particularly when it came to symphonies. Not only were his symphonies constantly being reworked by Bruckner himself and those around him (often resulting in "editions" of those works that tended to differ substantially in tone and in the orchestration called for, supposedly to align the composer with Wagner), but they are, in the editions most often heard of them, very lengthy in size and scope (carrying on the tradition of the final symphonies of Beethoven and Schubert). Even more, they often rely on fairly large brass sections, which was Bruckner's way of reconnecting to his roots as a church organist (the brass pronouncements always echoed the organs on which he first plied his trade). Such is the case with the Fifth Symphony, which, thanks to the amount of recordings of it in the last three decades, is now approaching the composer's Fourth and Seventh in terms of audience popularity. Structured with a vast landscape of an Adagio, and a Scherzo as turbulent as the one in the Beethoven Ninth, the Bruckner Fifth is also noted for a huge use of the brass in the conclusions of both outer movements, especially the finale with its massive, brass-anchored quadruple fugue. It's not out of bounds to suggest that John Williams' score to director John Frankenheimer's 1977 suspense thriller BLACK SUNDAY owes a lot to this symphony.Bruckner's church experience led him inevitably to compose a fair amount of liturgical music, including a powerful Mass in E minor for winds and chorus; but it is his 1884 setting of the "Te Deum" that is perhaps the most popular. It has such an imposing, almost apocalyptic opening, first with the large string section, then the chorus comes in on a thunderous wall of organ, brass and timpani. The "cathedral of sound" that pervades the composer's symphonies is very much in evidence in this section, as it is in the massive finish, with its refrain of the opening bars exploding outward in both the choir and the orchestra.This 2-CD recording puts the first three movements of the Fifth Symphony on the first CD, and the finale and the complete Te Deum on the second, but does so in such a seamless way that you are surrounded by Bruckner's imposing reputation (if played in one singular sitting) for an hour and 42 minutes. Bernard Haitink is a conductor extremely familiar with Bruckner, having led one of the great Bruckner orchestras on the planet, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Here, he leads another one of the big Bruckner outfits, the Vienna Philharmonic, giving the Fifth Symphony an appropriate amount of gravitas and a running time of 77 minutes; while the Te Deum features world-class performances from vocal soloists Karita Mattila, Susanne Mentzer, Vinson Cole, and Robert Holl, along with the Bavarian Radio Chorus.Listening to both the Fifth Symphony and the Te Deum back to back may be a handful for some listeners, even if one is used to the gigantic structures of Mahler, Wagner, Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss, but these 1988 performances are among the most blazing accounts of any of Bruckner's works on record, both as a look back on centuries of music that came before, and a look forward to the music yet to be in the 20th and 21st centuries. For Bruckner mavens, this is a recording to be strongly recommended.
